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Wednesday, December 31, 2014

2014 highlights

2014 was a pretty intense year for school and family life, but overall I think it was a great year. Probably not as good as 2013, and I think 2015 is going to be much better.

One the biggest events of my year was the first week of April when I flew out to Colorado (by myself. First time flying by myself) to attend a conference for my college course in leadership and communications. I got to meet all my classmates which I never got to before because our courses have all been online, and I learned a lot of great things. Personally it was also an experience where I found some healing and growth. Possibly my favorite month of the year.

In May I got to go on an actual vacation. I say "actual" because almost always our trips are because of a funeral or hospital visits, but this time I got to go on a real trip, and it was a great break from college. We went down to Chicagoland and central Illinois, where almost all my family is from and where I was born. It was the first time I got to visit the town I was born in which was an interesting and eye-opening experience. Then we went to Indiana to the Indianapolis 500, which was AWESOME, as always. We visited Gasoline Alley, the museum, and got a tour around the track none of which we got to do before. Looking back on it I really needed a week long break from college.

Other than those my spring and summer were swamped with college studies and what little writing time I have. I took a very fun creative writing course over the summer which inspired me to start working hard on writing and publishing short stories online. My youngest sister had to be rushed to Mayo twice and each of those stays lasted a few days (the second time it happened, my sister and I were home alone and we had to call 9-1-1 because she was having trouble breathing. It scared me and I couldn't eat for a whole day after that, but it all worked out okay), and those are beside the regular check-up appointments.

August through last month were the most intense. I had to sacrifice a lot of free time for college. Sadly the end of that road is not until early spring of 2015, but I'm very close so I can do it. In September I opened up art commissions for the first time. Hopefully that will start growing some more as I work harder and improve on my art.

In November I made a fairly big change...I cut my hair! I have had it long for my whole life and never really short, but in November I was kind of hit with an epiphany and I scheduled an appointment and got it cut super short. Every once in a while I look in the mirror and I'm still surprised that it's short, but I love it very much and I feel a lot better.

December has been the toughest month of the year. My sister was sick again so my mom took her to Mayo. What we thought would be a two or three day trip turned out to be three weeks. Add that to all the craziness of the holidays, plus it's not like I could break from college, I came close to having a breakdown. I hated it. But my sister got home in time and we were all together for Christmas. Still her condition is more complicated and fragile now, so that story isn't over. I am not sure what 2015 will look like for her. But I'm just glad we got through that.

2015 is going to be the year I finish college, get a driver's license, and start publishing more of my work online. I also plan to start a small group, read more books, draw more, and work out every single day instead of every other day like I do now. So maybe this year will be better.

How was your 2014? Was it what you expected, more than, or less than? What does 2015 look like for you?

And hey, guess what, 2015 is going to be the year we all get to see another Star Wars movie in theatres! So how bad can this year be, right? :)